Shinigami no Koi
by Firefly's Rebirth
Summary: Don't be fooled by the title...this isn't a hota/duo...but they do have a history...Hota is trying to get away from someone...why? who? please read!!! R
1. Running

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or SM, but I do own Xara, and Sarai so if u wanna borrow, u gotta ask!! *blows raspberries*  
  
AN: Ok...this is going to be a sort of replacement for Senshi vs. Tenshi whenever I'm stuck on what to write...so u'll just hafta put up with me...This story was just a thought out of nowhere while I was in the shower singing to myself. But as I thought further, I thought it might be a good idea, and it definitely flowed better than any of my other ideas (which I'm still thinking out). Therefore I'm writing this story down now, and not leaving it as just an idea. [perhaps you ought to finish Firefly's Revenge first? *raises eyebrow*] Everybody meet my beta reader SilverFoxGoddess, aka Sarai. (that's in case you haven't met her yet.) So everyone read and review!!! Enjoy!!  
  
Title: Shinigami's Lover  
Prologue: Running  
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth  
Rating: R...  
Warning: A bit of ooc....actually...a lot...but it works with the story so it's ok...  
  
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She ran. Her breath was short but she didn't want to go back so she ran. She had to get away from him. After all her years in hell, she wasn't going to go back, not when she had just gotten away. She saw an alley up ahead, she ran into it, into the shadows of the night. She stopped. She put her hands on her knees, bent over, and breathed the air of her freedom. It might have smelled like the sewers, but she didn't care, she was free, or as free as she was ever gonna get. As free as she was gonna get with Him after her.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Heero cursed, he didn't plan on staying at Relena's party for such a long time. Now the other pilots would be bugging him about Relena. He drove down the empty street hardly paying attention to the road ahead. He spotted a figure in all black running as if her life depended on it. The curious thing was that her running was at the same pace as the car, if only a bit slow. He saw that what she was wearing was very odd, there were spikes and armor as well as a long cape. Heero, curious, decided to investigate.  
  
He parked the car somewhere behind the alley the she had disappeared into, and stealthily jogged down to the opening of the alley. He walked into the alley seeing the figure bent over, breathing hard. All of a sudden she looked up, he was met by a pair of amethyst eyes. Both were cold, and frightened like a deer caught in front of the headlights from a car. He started to ask if she was alright, his hand moving to help her, but she bolted in the opposite direction, fear had washed over her eyes completely. "Ma...matte!!" He gave chase, she had turned left into another alley. "Damn she's fast!" He too turned into the alley only to see that it was completely empty. "Kuso..." He stared into the alley before turning back the way he came.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Amethyst eyes watched from above as the brown haired figure walked out of the alley. She sighed in relief. She was about to walk away, but when she turned around, she saw violet eyes staring at her from under a hood. She gasped in surprise. Also under that hood was a pointed nose, and a set of ivory teeth set in a smirk. "Thought you could get away huh? Well I'm sorry to break the news to you Firefly, but you'll never get away from me."  
  
"What do you want?" was the reply he got from her. She was looking at him a bit fearfully, but still with determination.  
  
"You know what I want. I want you back. Come back with me Firefly, I know you want to, you can't leave me." He was still smirking. She wanted to wipe that smile off his face, but didn't have the energy to do so.  
  
"I won't ever go back, and you know that you can't take me against my will so just leave me alone."  
  
"Now, now Firefly. Don't say that to me. You know you will come back, your place is there by my side, nothing will ever change that."  
  
"Never. I won't be your slave. Go away..."  
  
"Fine. But I'll be back to bring you home. I'll come often so that you remember where you belong. Now say my name so that I might begone."  
  
"Kisama....Shinigami..."  
  
With those words said, the figure in the black cload disappeared, leaving her on top of the cold roof alone. She bent down on her knees, hands moving up to cover her face as she cried silently.  
  
"Damn you Shinigami..."  
  
  
AN: So what did you think? U like or no? Questions? I hope you like cause I really like this idea. I realize this is hella short compared to my chapters from Senshi vs. Tenshi, but, this is just the prologue, and if you want me to continue, please review, I would really appreciate it. I would hope that at least 5 reviews came because then I know that there are at least a few people reading it, and actually want me to continue...anyhoo....R&R!!! ja!! 


	2. Firefly

Disclaimer: No I do not own any of the anime characters mentioned...however...I do own Xara, and Sarai so don't use 'em unless you ask meeeeeeeeeeeeeee first!!!  
  
AN: So here I am...writing the next chapter...I hope this was out soon enough for y'all... thanks for all the reviews...they were very much appreciated!!!! Don't have much to say except that this story is supposed to make up for my slow updating of Senshi vs. Tenshi...cause it's taking me some time to think of what gonna happen next...cause at the rate I'm writing that story...it's gonna take awhile...so I'm editing what I was planning on writing so that it's a bit shorter...but back to this story...I hope you like this chapter!!!   
  
Title: Shinigami's Lover   
Chapter 1: Firefly  
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth  
Rating: R...for a bit of sexual innuendos-ish...not too descriptive...and lotsa swearing in English and Japanese....  
Warnings: This isn't a Hotaru/Duo fic...I dun really like that pairing too much, however...u'll see what happens!!! A bit of OOC cause it works with the story....  
  
(blah) comments from ur's truly...  
[blah] extra comments from SFG...aka...Sarai-chan!!!  
Italicizing denotes thoughts.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Hey Heero!! Why are you so late? That party at Relena's ended a loooooooooooonnnnggg time ago!! Did you stay for Relena? Heeheheheheheh..." Duo as hyper as ever was practically bouncing up and down as he questioned his friend.  
  
"I distracted on the way back." Was the short reply as Heero got out his laptop to check to see whether he had received any messages from Preventer HQ. All five were now officially full time Preventers, they didn't always get missions because of the peace, but they were glad that they could use some of their talents to help ensure the peace. It was already 2 years since the Mariemaia's coup de etat (eerr...i forget how to spell that damn word...*sigh*), Duo had finished the war salvage thing, Trowa didn't plan on spending his whole time in the circus, Wufei was already working for the Preventers and Quatre could leave his work to his sisters. This had left them rather bored and such therefore they joined up, only to find that Heero had already unofficially joined and worked as their shadow. (am I rambling?) [*sweatdrops* yes....] (*sigh*)  
  
"Distracted huh? Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier...distracted? Hmmm...must've been really important..."  
  
"Duo..."  
  
"Yes Heero?"  
  
"Shut up...I'm working..."  
  
"Okokokok...fine...sheesh...." Muttered Duo as he went off to go bother another person leaving Heero to work away on his laptop. (heeheehee...I'm working on myyyyyy laptop tooooo!!!! Heeheeheeheehee!!!) [yeayeayeayea we kno you love ur laptop...now shut up and keep writing!!!!!!!!!!] (hmph!!)  
  
Heero stared at the screen of his laptop, thinking...Odd girl, she seemed very afraid of something. What she was wearing...not from around here?  
  
As usual, Heero's analytical mind took over, trying to figure out what the mystery was behind the very mysterious girl.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Hotaru was tired, after Shinigami had left her, she had walked for miles until she actually reached a place of actual civilization. She got a place to stay for the night, but only for the night, come morning she had to find another place that she could afford. She needed a job. That morning she spent at a local library to do research. She needed to better know the system in which the world worked. Seeing that her skills would best be applied in helping to keep the peace, she decided that she could probably work as a Preventer. But first, she needed and identity. She technically didn't (well...actually, she didn't exist in this world at all...) exist in this world. She hacked into the central system of the ESUN and created herself. Soon she was a citizen of Japan by the name of Hotaru Tomoe, a firefly that sprouted or came from the depths of the earth, a name that completely suited who and what she was. She then headed towards the Preventers HQ in downtown Kyoto ( I dunno whether or not there is a downtown for Kyoto, but just stick with me k?) to get a job...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Well Miss Tomoe, it seems that you are perfectly qualified to become one of the Preventers. We're glad that you joined up to help keep peace here...on earth. Of course I would love to be the one to show you around, however I have pressing business in the Sank Kingdom which I really ought to get to. Therefore, I'm assigning a few of our agents who ought to be on vacation, to show you around. (A bunch of workaholics who don't really care for vacations....well...maybe except for one or two...)[Duo? *sighs* *sweatdrops*] I hope you are ok with that."   
  
Lady Une was surprised that such a young girl would join up with the Preventers, she was supposed to be in high school, but it seemed that she needed the job, so she couldn't argue with her choice.  
  
"Yes Ms. Une, I'm perfectly ok with that."  
  
"Great! Well the boys'll be over in a sec, I'll introduce you, but then I'll have to go so you will need to make sure for yourself to get to know them, they aren't exactly...uhhh...how can I put this..."  
  
"Sociable?"  
  
"Uh...heh...something like that..." Une sweatdropped.  
  
Hotaru smiled slightly at the lady's embarrassment but then heard some people entering the door, so she turned to meet them.  
  
"Ah...here they are." In walked Trowa with his unibang forever hiding one of his emerald green eyes, Quatre with his kind smile, Wufei with his whole "women are weak" speech, and...  
  
"You..." Heero said the second he laid eyes on Hotaru.  
  
She looked at him, silent, contemplating what to say when the silence was broken.  
  
"Ummm...do you two know each other?" Une was surprised.  
  
"Iie, but I do believe we had a run in last night."  
  
"Oh...ok..." Then turning her attention back to the boys present, she said, "Sorry for calling you here on your vacation, but I figured you guys would need something to do so...Where's...?  
  
"He's on his way..." was the quick reply from Trowa who saw what was coming.  
  
"Oh. I see. Ok. Well then while we're waiting for him to come, why don't I introduce this young lady here. She's a new Preventer, just joined today, and her name is Hotaru Tomoe." She's Japanese, and has quite a high IQ which would be very useful to us here at HQs."  
  
Quatre smiled his greeting at Hotaru while introducing himself. "I'm Quatre Raberba Winner from colony L4. I'm more of a delegate than anything, but I can pilot ms as well. I'm pleased to be of your acquaintance and hope that we'll be friends."  
  
Quatre Raberba Winner...where have I heard that name before? Aaah yes...I remember, he's the one that I drove crazy with the Zero System during the Eve Wars. He's very polite. An heir to practically a whole colony. Interesting fellow.  
  
Quatre sweatdropped when he noticed that none of his other friends were introducing themselves. *sigh* "I guess I'll need to introduce the..."  
  
"No thank you Winner. I don't need help introducing myself to a woman, or should I say...a little girl that probably should still be in high school."  
  
Hotaru narrowed her eyes dangerously and glared.  
  
Wufei looked at the girl in slight surprise. "I'm Chang Wufei, ms pilot and a damned good one at that. I believe that women are a completely weak sex and are hardly worth wasting time on."  
  
Chang Wufei, sexist bastard. No wonder, I had him confused about justice didn't I? That's why he joined Mariemaia 2 years ago. Hmph, he's still arrogant even after all these years. He hasn't learned a thing. (You see him join Mariemaia in Blind Target which takes place after the Eve wars, and before the Mariemaia Incident.)  
  
Trowa then cleared his throat to clear the tension that was growing between Hotaru and Wufei. "Trowa Barton, ms pilot and tactician."  
  
Trowa Barton, my dear poor Nanashi. The poor little lost soul which I sent away from hell to be free. Where did I get that? (Hotaru doesn't completely remember what she was in the past, which will be explained probably in the next chapter.)  
  
Hotaru nodded her greeting towards Trowa and then directed her attention towards the Perfect Soldier.  
  
Heero Yuy. Perfect Soldier. Suicidal. Odin Lowe Jr. Wing Zero. Zero System.  
  
Hotaru was having a barrage of thoughts when she looked into his eyes. She could "see" the thoughts and emotions rolling like waves off his body, yet his eyes didn't reveal anything.   
  
"Heero Yuy, ms pilot." Was all he said.  
  
Lady Une sensing more tension spoke out. "Well then when the last member of your group comes, you can all get started in showing Miss Tomoe around and such. I really must get going. Good day." With that, she was headed towards the door when it burst open.  
  
It was a blur of motion. All one could see was a flying brown braid rushing in the door before unseeingly, crashing into the new Preventer.   
  
"Oooowww...sorrysorrysorrysorry...I didn't mean to crash into you, I wasn't watching where I was going..." The brown haired boy was bowing repeatedly at the figure before him who looked at him rather shocked. She took a step back.  
  
"Uhh...Maxwell, please meet Miss Tomoe, a new Preventer." Lady Une sweatdropped at the actions of one of the best of the Preventers.  
  
"Oh...heheheh...hi..." Duo straightened up, showing his large violet eyes, pointed nose, and ivory teeth.  
  
Hotaru gasped and stepped backwards, staring at him.  
  
Seeing this Duo said, "Look, I'm sorry for scaring you when I crashed into you, I guess I was in a hurry to meet you!!"  
  
"Suck up." Was muttered by a certain Chinese pilot.  
  
Hotaru, though her eyes were completely blank, was still looking at him warily.  
  
"By the way, I'm Duo Maxwell, I might run and hide, but I never lie!!"  
  
This was the last straw for Hotaru, she backed up against the wall, still staring at Duo weird. It can't be. It can't be. Shinigami can't be... (Lady Une left right after she introduced Hotaru to Duo.)  
  
"Uhh...Miss Tomoe, are you alrite?" Quatre was worried. One second, the new girl was perfectly fine, aloof almost. But then the next minute, she seemed on the edge of a nervous collapse.  
  
"I'm fine. Ummm, why don't we get started on that tour of Headquarters huh?"  
  
Quatre looked at her uncertainly, "Sure, whatever you want. How 'bout we all take her around for some time, that way she gets to know each one of us ok? We'll be back soon." And with that, he led Hotaru out of the room.  
  
Silence ruled over the room in which the pilots still occupied, Duo was still trying to catch his breath.   
  
Wufei broke the silence. "That onna is even weaker than I thought."  
  
"Did you see how she was completely shaken at the sight of Duo, then when he mentioned his name, it made things worse." Was Trowa's statement.  
  
"You hear that Maxwell. That girl was afraid of you. I guess you won't be getting anywhere with that girl huh?" Wufei sneered.  
  
"Hey! I resent that! But I agree, it is odd. How come such a cute girl is afraid of poor innocent little me?"  
  
Wufei snorted. "Innocent? More like the devil."  
  
"I'm not Shinigami for no reason."  
  
"You still believe you're Shinigami? When are you gonna grow up?"  
  
Trowa interjected. "We need to check up her background. Not that I don't trust Lady Une's skills, but, there might be something in her past that might affect her now."  
  
They nodded in agreement.  
  
"Hn..." What's up with this girl?  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Ms Tomoe..."  
  
"Just call me Hotaru."  
  
"Ok, Hotaru, it seems that there aren't any rooms here at HQ available because of your unexpected arrival, so...you'll be staying with us guys in one of my houses."  
  
"You guys?"  
  
"Uh, yea, Trowa, Wufei, Duo, Heero and I all live in my house here because they wouldn't do too well with the others...because of our...pasts..."  
  
"You mean the Gundams?"  
  
Quatre sucked in air, surprised. How did she know about us? Nobody should know who we are except for the few that met us during the Eve Wars. "How did you know?"  
  
"I researched you guys, then judging by the fact that most of you guys aren't exactly...friendly, I just figured."  
  
Quatre was surprised at how observant Hotaru was; she noticed things that wouldn't have crossed his mind twice. He thought it odd that she didn't seem to know completely what the world was like, how people acted towards each other. In fact she seemed to be one who led a very sheltered rich life. Also noticed that Hotaru had calmed down a great deal since leaving the room where they had all met. In fact she was back to her normal indifference. "Well could you just not tell anyone about it, I mean, it wouldn't do too good for the world to know that the ex-gundam pilots, even though they saved the earth, still had access to military weapons. It would cause quite a stir. I hope you understand."  
  
"Of course. I understand that keeping the ESUN stable is very important, if anything happened to tip the balance, Earth would be thrown into war once again."  
  
Quatre had introduced her to the other people she would be working with, and was on his way to showing her his house (or should I say, the g-boys' house, they've lived there for quite a while).  
  
He led her inside showing her to the yet unready guest room. "Sorry, but we weren't exactly expecting visitors or anything, it was...or is, our weapon collection room...you can move things around if you like...Duo was having too much fun decorating the house and..." He trailed off as he watched Hotaru take a goooood look at the room.  
  
It was kinda dark, there were weapons hanging off the wall, a very wide variety of weapons. It seemed that at least one weapon came from each nation. She noticed that there was a double bladed scythe hanging on the wall. The handle was curved a bit to make it easier to twist, yet it was made of some old stuff she couldn't describe, only that it was sturdy. The blade itself looked dangerous just sitting there, it gleamed lightly from the light going through the curtain covering the windows. "Where did you get the scythe?"  
  
"Huh? Uh well Duo picked it up in some temple in Tokyo. It seemed that no one wanted it because it didn't look very good, and was too heavy to carry. We got that glaive in the same place, it is a very odd glaive, and it's also double bladed."  
  
The glaive she noticed sat right above the clothing drawer against the wall opposite that of the bed. It was indeed double bladed, only the blades weren't the same size. The larger one was as curved as the scythe, but the shorter one was only one third it's size, it also flattened out at the top, making it look like the letter G.  
  
"Are these weapons usable?"  
  
"Well, if you could lift it then, yes. It seemed that the other four wanted them in good condition for use though I'll never understand why. So uh...are you ok with this room?"  
  
"It'll do, I hope you won't mind if I added a few things for myself."  
  
"No, no...go ahead, it's your room."  
  
"Thank you Mr. Winner."  
  
"Just call me Quatre, we don't need to be so formal, especially since we'll all be living in the same house."  
  
Hotaru smiled slightly. Perhaps it won't be so bad, living with a mortal reflection of Shinigami. I have other's I can "hang" with. "Thanks Quatre."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Later that night after all the pilots had given her a little tour (Heero accompanied Duo using the excuse that Duo wouldn't do his job correctly) they all returned to Quatre's home which is named Aoi Sora (Blue skies) because for some reason, you could always see the blue sky from there. Heero was surprised that when Hotaru met up with Duo, she didn't seem frightened anymore, it seemed that either she was able to control whatever she was feeling or she really was surprised.   
By the time they arrived at Blue Skies, it was already nighttime, and Hotaru was still exhausted.   
  
"Good night. Thank you for dinner."  
  
Duo chuckled. "It's alrite you're living here now so you don't need to act so formal!"  
  
She bowed (typical Japanese tradition) and went into her room which was down the hall, the farthest room in the house.  
  
A silence settled around the living room which was right in the front of the house. (Duo's munchin' on a bag of chips.) [I don't think those exist in the Gundam Universe] (Whatever...It's my story!!)  
  
"Uh well, today was definitely an interesting day." Was the first thing Duo said when he finished. "Hotaru seems really quiet though, and that's something we don't need around here."   
  
Duo shrunk as glares were thrown his way.  
  
"Duo, you know you don't mean that. Hotaru's really nice, she's just shy." Quatre was defending the reserved girl. "She might seem indifferent, but she must have gone through a lot. Just like we did."  
  
They sat in silence again contemplating.  
  
"It's interesting how she see's people. She seems to think of them as below her as if she were some rich snob." Duo commented.  
  
"She doesn't seem to know how to treat people other than those that she knows is of higher rank than her." (Trowa)  
  
"That onna actually said she could beat me in a one on one match when I said that most of the women didn't do any actual fighting even though they were trained."  
  
The rest just smirked at the hotheaded Chinese boy.   
  
"She doesn't seem to know this world very well." Stated Trowa.  
  
"I agree." Quatre nodded, "While we were heading here earlier this afternoon, I noticed that she knows our political past and present situations very well. She seemed to be able to understand why something, whatever it was, happened. But when it came down to just normal people, as in, how people react, and just natural things, she seems like a mechanical doll that doesn't understand the concept of emotion."  
  
"Weird."  
  
"She's also very observant. Things that we take for granted, she mentions. She seems to be able to see what the situation of something is just by a glance."  
  
"What do you mean?" (Trowa)  
  
"When we passed by a park, we noticed that there was a small riot going on. So we stopped and parted the crowd to see what was going on. We saw a man holding another man by the shirt, his fist raised, and bloody from punching the other man. Behind the first man is a tall and beautiful woman, dressed in very showy clothing. I automatically assume that they were fighting over the woman. Right?"  
  
The other's nodded. Quatre continued.  
  
"Well I was just going to send them home when, Hotaru goes up to the men and says, 'Put the knife down, murder is a very serious crime.' The men just glared at her and were about to continue the fistfight. Of course I was about to interfere when all of a sudden Hotaru lashes out and strikes the man, with the bloody fist over the neck, knocking him out instantly. He drops the other man who stumbles and drops a knife. I hadn't seen this knife, no one had. The two men were surrounded and somehow they didn't notice that the man that was about to be punched had a knife hidden in his sleeve. Even you wouldn't have noticed Heero. So she sent the would-be murderer to jail, and sent the rest of the people home. But that's not the end."  
  
"What more?" Wufei couldn't stand hearing about how great this new WOMAN was.  
  
"The woman standing by the side, she too was sent to jail. Hotaru, just immediately cuffed the woman and said, 'Nice try.'"  
  
"What?!" Duo was definitely shocked "Is she out of her mind?"  
  
"Well in the end we found out that the woman had indeed caused the fight. She had somehow goaded them into it. Now tell me, is that possible? How could Hotaru possibly have known what that woman was doing?"  
  
The others were speechless.  
  
"As I said before, she can just about tell whatever is going on, in fact, she knows about us."  
  
"What?" This was the first time Heero had spoken all afternoon since introducing himself.  
  
The other's looked at Heero in surprise, who would have thought that this would bring a reaction out of the Perfect Soldier.  
  
Trowa inquired, "How did she find out?"  
  
"She said that she just figured, based on our attitudes or something. It's really surreal."  
  
"That's impossible for a human. I mean, even Heero can't do that, and he's supposed to be perfect. And didn't you say she runs at an unnatural speed Heero? And wasn't she wearing some really weird clothing? Amour or something?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
Just then, though nobody noticed, Duo's eyes darkened. "She's not from this world. She doesn't belong in this world. She's not human."  
  
Duo's eyes returned to normal, he blinked a few times before saying, "She can't be real right?"  
  
The other's just nodded in agreement.  
  
Just then they heard footsteps running lightly down the hall away from them.  
  
"Oh shit..."  
  
I hope that wasn't too long. It seems that writing the 5th chapter of Senshi vs. Tenshi at the same time as this causes me to write longer and longer. In fact, it doesn't seem all that long to me anymore. Anyway I'm sorry about how there was a lot of talking here, I needed a sort of transition before starting the next part where some action takes place. This story will definitely move faster than Senshi vs. Tenshi, and hopefully updated more often so that you don't get too bored waiting for me. Ok...so I need to know which senshi I ought to just throw in there as a minor character...I'm not planning on pairing them up, but I'm I might change my mind...anyway...I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to review!!   
  
P.S. Should I make my chapters shorter or longer? I can never decide when to leave off...*sigh*...input is very welcome...flames...anything!! R&R ja! 


	3. Explanations

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing so don't sue me!!! Well actually I do own Xara and Sarai so NO TOUCHIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
AN: Yea!! Got lots of reviews!!! Happy happy joy joy!!! Heehee...Finally I finished this chapter...hope you like!!! Thanks for the reviews!! Lufs to all of you!!! Enjoy!!! Oh and in case you didn't know, Shinigami no Koi means the title below....or the Lover of Shinigami...soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I couldn't get the chapter out any sooner....it's just that with the break came my trip with the choir to China and Taiwan in which I did write some when I could but not enough to have this chapter anywhere near halfway finished....and then after break came finals....then because of finals my brain was fried meaning I didn't know wat to write...Sigh...at least I finally got it out right?   
  
Title: Shinigami's Lover  
Chapter 2: Explanations  
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth  
Rating: R...for whatever is well...restricted....  
Warning: OOC...a bit of angst perhaps....hmmm....what else? I dunno...whatever....  
  
(blah) denotes my comments!!!  
[blah] denotes SFG's comments...  
^blah^ denotes italicizing. (I noticed that the italicizing doesn't seem to show up when I put it into text format so I'm putting it in those thingys.  
# blah# denotes words spoken in Japanese which I was too lazy to actually translate into Japanese that aren't already in Japanese...(did you get this sentence?) [no] (shush, I wasn't asking you) [hmph!!]  
*blah* denotes words spoken to her in her head.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Oh shit..." Duo reiterated. He didn't know that Hotaru had been listening, in fact, none of them knew. Duo continued weakly, " You don't think she heard do you?"  
  
"What a stupid question Maxwell! Of course the baka onna heard, otherwise she wouldn't be running back into her room to cry."  
  
Ignoring the two bickering bakas, Heero, Trowa, and Quatre went down the hall to see what Hotaru was going to do.  
  
Surprisingly the door was unlocked, they entered the dark room to see Hotaru sitting on her bed looking up at the ceiling, a very thoughtful look on her face. "So you guys don't think I'm human huh? Not surprising I suppose, that's what everybody thinks, I'm ok with it."  
  
Quatre spoke up first, "Hotaru, Duo didn't mean anything by it, he was just joking..."  
  
Hotaru laughed rather bitterly, "Joking? Shinigami never joked..." Just then she clapped her hand over her mouth. ^oops^  
  
"How do you know Duo called himself Shinigami?" was the question Heero asked.  
  
"How did I know you were the gundam pilots? How do I move so fast? How come it seems I can read minds? Aren't these all questions you want to ask?"   
  
Trowa noticed that she had evaded answering the question, Heero also noticed, but didn't say anything. If she was smart enough to be able to evade the question like that, then she was definitely worth sticking it out with for the time being.  
  
"Do you guys want me to leave or something? I mean, I know you guys don't trust me or anything..."  
  
Quatre quickly interjected, "No! You can stay, I'm sure they aren't going to make you leave, right guys?" Quatre looked over to Heero and Trowa.  
  
"It's ok, you can stay Hotaru..." Trowa left.  
  
Heero just nodded his head and left.  
  
^^^^^^  
I realize that that was a bit disappointing, but I didn't know how else I could do it without making them look like total saps...I dislike sappiness, but it's ok...up to a point, I just couldn't see them being sappy....gomen....  
^^^^^^  
  
The next day, they all went to work, Heero rode his motorcycle to work early, he never got rides or anything with any of the other guys. Trowa drove Wufei and Hotaru, they liked being on time, not that Quatre didn't like being on time, but Duo couldn't be trusted to make coffee in the morning let alone driving, so Quatre was left to waiting for Duo since he was the only one who could stand waiting for Duo. (isn't Quatre just too nice for his own good?)   
  
Upon arriving to HQ, Hotaru went straight to her new office, she had to share it with some bubbly, also new, Preventer. She introduced herself as Rini (Chibi-usa wouldn't work since this is AU.) Her hair was impossibly bright pink, and put in two little pigtails, she wore a knee length skirt that flowed like water, and a sleeveless blouse. Hotaru couldn't quite understand why she was dressing like this at the office, but she wasn't one to complain. She on the other hand, wore some black jeans, and a purple tank top. Her hair was clipped back off her face, and hidden where no one could see, she had a gun. And how did she get a gun? It was one of the weapons on display in her room, it was part of the more modern collection of stuff, so she thought she'd keep it with her just in case.  
  
"Hotaaaaruuu!"  
  
Hearing her name being called from down the hall, Hotaru put her work down and went into the hallway.  
  
"What is it Maxwell?" Her voice sounding annoyed.   
  
"You are needed to hack into a very tight database for some info for Preventer use."  
  
"Ok" with that, she followed him into the computer room only to find it empty of anything except for one laptop, in the middle of the room, booted up and linked to the ESUN system.  
  
"I did the easy linking work for you, you get to do the hard stuff so I can see just how good you are..."  
  
"What do I need to retrieve?"  
  
"Uhh...." Looking down onto his clipboard, Duo looked for what he needed. " You need to retrieve information on the...Gundams and their pilots...." He fell silent waiting for her reaction.  
  
Hotaru stared at him for a second before raising an eyebrow, "And this is supposed to be for Preventer use?"  
  
Duo looked at her nervously, "Please, could you please just do this..." He looked at her hopefully.  
  
"Fine...Whatever, but you'd better give me a good explanation later...." She then sat down and got to work.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"I got all the information there was on the Gundams and their pilots..." She was about to list some of the extra info she got, but some movement, not coming from Duo, distracted her. ^Hn. So it was a test.^ "You can come out of that closet now Heero..."  
  
Duo gaped as Heero grudgingly stepped out of the storage closet. ^Damn she's good. Not even Trowa, Heero, or Wufei would've have sensed anything. ^  
  
Not bothering to question Heero's actions, she asked him, "Is this the information you...needed?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Is this all...I need to get back to work...and if you plan on testing my skills at least tell me when you plan on doing so that way I can get my work done ahead of time..." With that, she went back to her shared office.  
  
"Dude she's...stiff...doesn't that remind you of someone?" Duo "nudged" Heero, who just ignored him.  
  
"Whatever." Heero walked off in the opposite direction of Hotaru.  
  
"Geez...what is up with people these days, sheesh, I was only trying to lighten the mood..." Duo then heard giggling behind him. "huh?" He turned around only to be met with an empty room. ^That's odd. I swear I heard a girl giggling...^ He shrugged it off and got back to work.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
So throughout the week Heero tested Hotaru's skills. But without his knowing, she was testing every single one of the pilots to see what they were like and what they could do. She was surprised to find that the gundam pilots were above average people, they had much more endurance, and had higher, much higher iqs.   
  
A week after the first test Heero came upon Hotaru's file. The file that contained her life information. (Why he didn't check it any earlier is a mystery to me.) He saw that it was perfectly clean, in fact, it was too clean for a girl that was as abnormally talented like her. He looked at her birth date, then at the creation date of the file, which is supposed to be at about the same time as when she was conceived, but it was only created about a week ago. And only a week ago did she actually start her job as a Preventer. He narrowed his eyes as he checked her profile. Her parents were deceased, but it didn't say with whom she lived while she was an orphan. In fact, it seemed that her file was a complete fake. (Guess Hotaru didn't do such a good job huh?)   
  
Without turning off his laptop, he went in search for Hotaru.   
  
He found her at her desk, but she was facing the window opposite of the door. She looked forlorn as she watched the birds fly past her window. He saw that she was singing to herself as well, but what she was singing was totally foreign to him, it wasn't any language known on earth. (Let's just say it's a language no longer spoken on earth.)  
  
The Perfect Soldier let the girl to finish her song before clearing his throat to catch her attention. Lavender eyes turned to look into his Prussian blue with a questioning look.  
  
"We're leaving for the day..." Seeing that Hotaru still didn't know exactly what was going on, Heero elaborated, "It's still technically our week off, so we're taking the rest of the day off..." (rite now is about noon.)  
  
"I see...Very well, give me 5 minutes to clean up, tell them I'll meet them in the parking lot."  
  
"Hn."   
  
He stared at her for a few more seconds before leaving.  
  
Downstairs he met up with the other ex-gundam pilots, and upon examining their looks of expectation (waiting for Hotaru to appear that is...), he stated, "I'm going to take Hotaru on my bike today, there are a few things that I need to talk to her about. I hope you don't mind too much, we'll join you for dinner tonight."  
  
The other's were slightly disappointed, they were all (up to a degree) entranced by the mysterious girl. They all gathered into their 2 cars and drove off. Hotaru just came down the stairs to see them drive off, "Why are they leaving already?"  
  
"There has been a change of plans..." His tone was curt.  
  
Hotaru flinched, she had thought that they trusted her, but obviously if the great Heero Yuy was still like this towards her, it meant that she was still not on stable ground.  
  
" You and I are going to have a little talk, then we'll go meet up with the rest of them."  
  
"Very well, it doesn't seem I have much choice anyway."  
  
They then both walked over to Heero's motorcycle. He tossed an extra helmet at her then swung his leg over to the other side waiting for Hotaru to get on. Hotaru on the other hand just stared blankly at the helmet she held in her hands, she looked up to see the intense gaze of Heero's stare, the rest of his face covered by the helmet. He snapped on the plastic cover protecting his eyes looking at her expectantly. Hotaru, feeling a bit uncomfortable under his gaze lowered her eyes, put on the helmet, then got on behind him.  
  
"Hold on..."  
  
She complied, wrapping her arms around his waist. She leaned on him slightly as he revved the engine then hugged him more tightly as they sped down the street. Heero could feel her arms tighten around him when he made a sharp turn taking them off the main street. ^It feels like she's going to just fly off...she's so small^  
  
Hotaru closed her eyes to just enjoy the rush of the wind around her, not questioning Heero as to where he was taking her and what he was planning. ^Next time I shouldn't wear the helmet so I can feel the full wind...the full wind of freedom...^  
  
*You'll never be free of me my firefly...*  
  
Hotaru's eyes snapped open to see Heero's once again staring at hers.  
  
"We're here...where were you?"  
  
"Huh? Oh...I was daydreaming" she quickly replied.  
  
Heero didn't say anything, he just took off his helmet, and walked off towards a little hill, "Come on, we're walking over this hill, just leave the helmet with the bike, it'll be fine."  
  
"Ok..." She put the helmet down, thinking. ^We arrived at our destination, yet I didn't even notice...Shinigami is still watching me isn't he? Why can't I ever be free of him?^  
  
This time not only did his voice answer her silent question, but his outline could be seen in her head as well. *Of course I'm watching you koi...and you'll never be free of me because you belong to me*   
  
A very impatient Perfect Soldier interrupted the voice in her head. "Are you coming or not, or are you planning to daydream the rest of the day and night away?" His voice was derisive and cold, freezing Hotaru into a stone.  
  
"I...I'm coming...." She shook the thoughts of Shinigami out of her head and quickly followed Heero up the hill.  
  
They went over the hill to be met by the sight of a crystal clear lake surrounded by a light forest. They sat on the shore and stared at it for a while, both sitting in silence. [There seems to be a lot of staring going on here...] (Yes...and there'll probably be a bit more...)  
  
"What is it that you brought me out here for? It certainly wasn't for a date, otherwise you'd be a bit more polite."  
  
"Hn...."  
  
She took a side-glance at him, studying his profile curiously. Even though she could feel what kind of a soul he had, she still couldn't decipher what he was thinking or how he would respond to different situations.  
  
"I know you aren't who you say you are..." he started out, his eyes hidden in the shadows of his hair, "You don't really exist in this world, your identity is fake, your abilities are far beyond those of normal humans, and...you are a threat to all of us..."  
  
Hotaru was shocked. She didn't expect him to just straight forward tell her exactly what was wrong with her...It stung.  
  
She sat in shock for a minute before she was able to answer quietly, "How am I threat to you guys? I haven't done anything harmful to you guys yet have I?"  
  
"No, you are a threat to our stability. It's like your being here will start a chain reaction of events that will eventually throw our world into chaos." ^Not only that, you'll throw all of our emotions into chaos...we don't know what to make of all your emotions just rolling off you in tsunami waves...^  
  
"How will my being here cause chaos, I haven't done anything in my life that could possibly...."  
  
She was cut off. "No...you aren't even actually registered in our world. Sure you have a file, but this file was created the day after that night I ran into you. Meaning that night, when you seemed to be running away from the Shinigami himself," At this she flinched. "was the first night here...in this world. I'm not saying I believe in the supernatural, but there is something not right about you being here. Even Quatre feels you don't belong here."  
  
"You can't prove that I'm not of this world, I have lived here, only I was never registered that's all, I was born in secret, and raised in secret...I belong in this world I do, so please don't say I don't..." She looked at him desperately.  
  
His tone softened slightly from his cold edge as he said softly, "But then what can explain the fact that your physical abilities are far beyond normal, and also, your mental abilities are practically...telepathic."  
  
She couldn't answer. Hotaru bit her lip, and lowered her head hiding her face behind a curtain of black hair highlighted in violet.   
  
"I can't explain any of that, it has too much to do with my past. The past that I'm trying to escape...Please.... please don't touch my past, it's too.... horrific."  
  
Heero couldn't help but feel something pull at his emotions. "Wakatta..."  
  
"......"   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Hotaru and Heero had only talked for an hour, but for both of them, it seemed like a millennium. Heero didn't say any more of how she was different. He understood that she didn't want to speak of her past, but he still felt threatened by the innocent girl. He let her fall asleep on the shore, and he himself lied down to think, himself falling asleep.  
  
He woke up 6 hours later to find the sun setting, and Hotaru still fast asleep. Everything about her now...seemed normal, the way her chest rose and fell with each breath she took, the smallness and frailty of her body, the smooth pale cream color of her skin, and the beautiful Asian features of her face. He tore his eyes away from her to look at his watch.  
  
"Oh shit!" he muttered, "Oh shit...Quatre isn't going to be too thrilled..."  
  
He leaned over to Hotaru and shook her shoulder to wake her up, "Hotaru, get up, we're going to be late for dinner." ^Crap, I guess I was more tired than I thought, all those thoughts about the mysterious firefly seriously has my head messed up at this point.^  
  
"Hm? What's wrong Heero?" Hotaru's eyes were half opened. "What happened?"  
  
"We fell asleep for about 6 hours and we're going to be late for dinner with the guys..."  
  
"Oh..." With that, she got up stretched a bit to loosen up her tight muscles then followed Heero back up the hill to the other side where his motorcycle was parked.   
  
This time, Hotaru didn't wear her helmet and nor did Heero. They both loved the feel of the wind on their faces and through their hair.   
  
"It feels like flying." She unwrapped her arms from Heero's waist and held them out like she was flying. "Like this, I feel I can fly free from everything. I feel free from everything..."  
  
Heero took a quick glance back at her before asking, "Were you not free in your past?"  
  
At this Hotaru was shocked, she stiffened up and automatically put her arms around Heero's waist again for balance. She answered soberly. "No...I wasn't free, and I'm still not free, that's why I'm running right now. I'm hoping to get away from something, someone, but he's still after. I'm hoping to enjoy the little freedom I get before I need to move on again."   
  
Heero didn't reply. They rode the rest of the way to the restaurant in silence.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Where have you guys been?" was the what Quatre practically shouted when Heero and Hotaru walked through the doors of the restaurant.  
  
Hotaru smiled her disarming smile while answering, "Gomen Quatre-kun! We fell asleep at the lake, it was so beautiful!!! It was crystal clear and the sunset was wonderful too!"  
  
Quatre and the rest couldn't help but to smile, Hotaru had this odd affect on all of them.  
  
*Still smiling that smile of your huh Firefly?*   
  
^Go away Shinigami! You aren't going to ruin my days here! No begone^  
  
*Dammit bitch!*  
  
His voice disappeared faster than usual.  
  
"Why don't we get to dinner then?" Trowa, quiet as ever, suggested.  
  
"Yea, lets dig in!!!!!!!!"  
  
"Good god Maxwell...."  
  
At the dinner table everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. They sat, in this order, clockwise; Quatre, Hotaru, Duo, Wufei, Heero, and Trowa.  
  
Quatre asked as quietly as he could to Heero, "Did you have your chat with Hotaru?"  
  
The whole table had heard the question, and everything was still. That is until Duo decided to give those two their privacy and started to jabber loudly with Hotaru, while Wufei on the otherhand was trying to get him to shut up. Trowa listened in on Quatre and heero's conversation with interest.  
  
"Hn. She and I had our talk."  
  
"What did you guys talk about?" (Trowa)  
  
"I just approached her on the fact that she doesn't belong to this world."  
  
"What?! You didn't. But does she...?" Quatre trailed off...  
  
"It's her own business, and if she wasn't, I wouldn't really want to know."  
  
"You didn't question her past did you?"  
  
"Iie. It's none of my business, so I don't suggest any of you question her, she's very sensitive about it, it's also painful for her, just like our pasts are painful for us."  
  
"I understand, and I'm sure the other guys'll too. We've all had our fair share of painful pasts." Thus ending the conversation.  
  
Hotaru glanced at Heero, her eyes saying their thanks for not revealing any of their conversation.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The next day at work, Hotaru was once again hard at work when there was a knock on her door.   
  
"Come in..."  
  
In came Duo bounding in the door, "Hey Hotaru! Watcha doin?"  
  
"What else...work..."  
  
"Damn...you really sound like heero sometimes...sheesh....oh...hey where's Rini?"  
  
"She's obviously not here...Maxwell...don't you have anything else to do?"  
  
"Of course not..."  
  
Hotaru's eyes widened at the sound of Duo's voice. It had lowered into a deeper sugary conniving voice. ^ Kami-sama tasukete...^  
  
"Shi...shinigami..."  
  
"Heh..." He smirked, "Didn't expect to see me huh? Well I didn't like how you just discarded me last night, so I decided to pay you a visit..."  
  
Hotaru looked shooken, Shinigami visiting her over what happened last night meant that she had seriously pissed him off...  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"Why do you always ask that, you know what I want...I want you to come back with me..."  
  
"Shinigami, you already know my answer, I don't want to go back, why can't you just leave me alone?" At this she stood up and looked him directly in the eye.  
  
He smirked, and walked towards her inching his head towards her til they were only an inch apart. "I can't leave you alone, you belong by my side, for all of eternity you do..." His voice had dropped down to a whisper, " Anta wa Shinigami no koi...#you belong to me.#" With that he brought his lips onto her's closing the distance between them, one hand on her back holding her and the other lifting her chin. Her eyes closed when he said his last few words, she had given into him.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Heero was once again heading towards Hotaru's office, Lady Une had just arrived back and wanted to see her. He was right in front of her door and was poised to open it when Hotaru crashed into his arms knocking them both to the ground. "Sorry...." Was all her heard from her as she got up and tore down the hall, tears dropping to the ground.  
  
Heero, confused looked up towards her door to see that Duo had just walked out.  
  
"What did you do Maxwell?" Heero didn't notice that Duo's eyes were slightly narrower and his look slightly ominous.  
  
"I don't know, I might have accidentally mentioned something about her past...I don't know...she just burst out crying and when I tried to comfort her, she bolted."  
  
Heero and "Duo" both stared down the hall in the direction that Hotaru had taken, Heero slightly apprehensive, and "Duo" smirking.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Hotaru sat underneath the cherry blossom tree sniffling to herself. ^ How can I be so weak? He comes towards me and I practically fling myself into his arms. How can I be such a fool? ^ Hotaru continued to berate herself while still trying to wipe away her tears.  
  
"Well well, it seems that Hotaru-sama isn't as strong as she used to be..." came a voice.  
  
Hotaru's head snapped up in surprise, "Whose there?"  
  
"Hm...not only that, she seems to be totally oblivious as well..." came another voice.  
  
Hotaru looked in the direction of the 2 voices and saw 2 figures standing in the shower of cherry blossom petal.  
  
One girl with bright red orange hair like that of the sun, waving down to her waist. And one girl with ebony black hair streaming straight down past her upper leg. They both wore sarong like skirts only the open part was in the front, one golden red, one midnight black. " Sarai....Xara...."  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
Ooh....Xara and Sarai have appeared....Who are they, and what do they want? And just to clarify things, Xara in my other stories would be the Senshi of Nothingness, the void, and dimensional stuff...Sarai, is her exact opposite, she's the Senshi of the Sun, of energy, power. So where Xara takes away, Sarai gives...I kno the color scheme doesn't quite work well...but oh well...u'll notice that in each story, I'll give them both another overlapping character that is also in the SM storyline....but it doesn't apply in this story so don't worry about it....So anyways....i hope you liked this chapter, I certainly enjoyed spending a lot of time on it...(Sarcastic as usual). Please review!!!!!!!!!!! Question's and such can be asked through reviews or email (toolipz87@yahoo.com). Thanks for reading!! R&R!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	4. Old Friends or....Rivals?

Disclaimer: I dun own nuthin'.... heheh....i own Xara and Sarai so back off!!!  
  
AN: Thankies for the reviews!! I love reviews!!! But I didn't get too many...*sob*...oh well...*sigh* on to the next chapter!!!!!!!!!!! I'm on a writing spree....i've been writing one chapter a night for 3 days since I last posted...I even started a new story...Hotaru-hime no Densetsu...or Legend of Princess Firefly...now I have 3 stories that I'm currently working on so in short...I'm screwed [you wish]...but I hope you like this next chapter!!!  
  
Title: Shinigami's Lover  
Ch. 3: Old Friends...or Old Rivals?  
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth  
Rating: R  
Pairing: We'll see...*cackles*...  
Warnings: On the angsty side...Xara and Sarai enter...u might not know who they are which might cause some confusion...  
  
(blah) denotes my comments and notes  
[blah] denotes what little comments SFG can afford to put in...  
^blah^ denotes thoughts...  
#blah# denotes words I'm too lazy to translate into Japanese...  
*blah* denotes words spoken into whoever's head by....whoever....usually Shinigami...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Recap:  
  
Two girls came walking towards Hotaru. One with her flaming red orange hair wearing a golden red sarong that opened to the front showing both of her legs, and the other, with her straight knee length ebony hair, also wearing a sarong that opened to the front, only hers was midnight black. "Sarai.... Xara...."  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
"Well well...It's been a long time ne Hotaru-sama?" commented the red-head.  
  
"Sarai...." Hotaru was still shocked to see them there.  
  
"Speechless as well? We expected a warmer welcome..." was input by the red-head's dark counterpart.  
  
"Xara...What are you guys doing here?"  
  
"Well we're here to look after you...as commanded by Shinigami..." sneered Sarai slightly.  
  
Hotaru flinched at her tone. She looked over to Xara to see what she would say.  
  
Xara only looked away, indifferent. " I must say, that this is a definite change in character. Hotaru-sama actually afraid of the name of Shinigami."  
  
Hotaru angered [is that even a word?] (duh!!...dork), replied scathingly, "Scared of Shinigami? I should say you were the ones afraid of Shinigami, otherwise you wouldn't be here to 'watch over me.' Not only that, you are calling me 'Hotaru-sama' as if you were scared to offend me by calling me any other way.  
  
Xara stiffened at the taunt. She replied, "Well, what else are we going to call you, we're here, on earth, it wouldn't be right to call you anything else."  
  
"That's just your excuse, so if you don't have anything else to say, I'd suggest you leave...NOW..."  
  
Sarai smirked her badass smirk, "Well we would leave, but we're here on the commands of Shinigami, and I'm sorry to say, Shinigami has more authority than you..."  
  
Hotaru's eyes darkened into a deep, deep purple, almost black, "He has more authority does he?" Her voice was menacing, but they couldn't see her expression because her head was tilted forward so that her hair cascaded over her face. If they had seen her face, they wouldn't have said any further, and just left, but they didn't see... "Well..."  
  
Xara saw the warning signs of a major problem, so she nudged Sarai whispering, "We'd better back off, she's pissed. We won't push her any further now, but we have to stay on earth...so let's go introduce ourselves to her friends so that we have an excuse to stay..."  
  
Sarai nodded in agreement. [have you ever seen a pissed FR? I tell you, it ain't pretty... beware the long fingernails...^_____^] (Shut up!! I'm not that bad!!) [*gives FR another one of her looks* u kiddin me?]  
  
They both walked off, leaving Hotaru by the tree, her head still facing the ground. ^What's wrong with me? I can't control myself...being around them makes me want to revert back to...who I used to be, who I thought I had left behind. If they're going to be near me, I'll need to be extra careful...^ With that last thought she headed back to the office building.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Hotaru!" Quatre called while running towards her, "Hotaru, it seems that some friends of your have come to visit."  
  
Hotaru narrowed her eyes at the news, "Really? Where are they?"  
  
Quatre looked at her uncertainly while answering, "They're in the lounge...with the guys..."(meaning the ex-gundam pilots)[no shit Sherlock...](...)[you're supposed to say 'Dig deeper Watson' ......sorry, I couldn't help it...]  
  
"I see..."  
  
They headed to the lounge. Upon entering, Hotaru saw that Sarai was sitting comfortably on the couch, and Xara was standing next to the couch. Sarai looked over to Hotaru smiling, "Hey there Hotaru-chan! How are you doing? Xara and I decided to drop in for a visit."  
  
Hotaru just looked at them frostily saying, "I'm sure you've already made yourselves comfortable for your stay here."  
  
"Hey Hotaru! Aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?" It seemed Duo was back to normal, but Hotaru still looked at him warily.  
  
"I'm sure they can introduce themselves since they seemed to have made themselves comfortable here."  
  
"Dude...you don't need to be so cold towards your friends..."  
  
Hotaru snorted, "Friends?" She then went on to mutter, "Rivals more like...."   
  
The 5 pilots looked at Hotaru oddly wondering why she was behaving so callously towards her friends. Apparently they hadn't heard her muttering.  
  
Seeing that everyone was rather uncomfortable, Xara cleared her throat, "Well, since Hotaru is deciding to be that way, I guess we'll have to introduce ourselves...My name is relatively unheard of, so you can call me Xara, just Xara." She looked over to Sarai, prompting her to speak.  
  
"My name is Sarai, just Sarai, don't have a last name, I can't remember whether or not I have one, so Sarai is sufficient.  
  
Heero, judging by the way Hotaru was acting, was extremely suspicious of these two newcomers whom claimed to be her friends. ^ It's already strange enough to have Hotaru here, when we don't even know exactly what she is. But now her "friends" have come. This is definitely going to get interesting. It's strange that they don't have last names...I'd better do a check on them...^  
  
Quatre, once again, being the courteous one, offered to let them stay at Aoi Sora [why am I not surprised...] (huh?) while they were visiting her, an offer they just couldn't decline. After the introductions, Hotaru, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei went their separate ways to get back to their work. But Quatre, once again being polite, stayed to entertain the two girls while Duo was there to just outright flirt.   
  
"Sarai-san, Xara-san, where did you ladies meet Hotaru?" (Quats).  
  
Sarai smiled placidly saying a downright lie, "We were good friends during the war, we helped each other survive during the battles...It was horrible, but we all pulled through."  
  
"Oh, it must have been tough for you...where did you guys live?" (Duo)[*raises eyebrow* dude... "it must have been tough for you" sounds like something Relena would say... no offense to anyone...]  
  
This time Xara answered, "We lived on Earth, here in Kyoto."  
  
"Really? I didn't know of any battles that took place here..." (Quatre)  
  
Sarai frowned, "Well, there wasn't anything big here, but, we did travel all over the place..." And them before, either Duo or Quatre could ask any more questions, Sarai rubbed her forehead saying, "Please don't ask anymore, it gives me such a horrible headache thinking about our pasts..."  
  
Quatre and Duo nodded, both regretful for bringing up such a painful subject.  
  
"So! What do you guys do now?" Quatre by then had excused himself to get work done, leaving Duo to entertain the girls.  
  
"Well, we're priestesses of sorts, we guard the temple of Shinigami." Xara said indifferently.  
  
"Really!! I didn't know there was such a temple!! Did you know that I'm Shinigami?"  
  
Sarai looked at him, startled. ^Does he know? He can't know...^ "What makes you say that Duo?"  
  
"Aahh....well, only the fact that everybody that hangs around with me eventually ends up dead...it's sort of a curse."  
  
Sarai was speechless, so Xara continued, "Well, if everybody around you ended up dead, how come you hang out with these people, you seem to care about them, aren't you afraid they might die?"  
  
"Well...they wouldn't die because of me, they've all made a deal with Shinigami anyway, it's kinda hard for them to die because of me...."  
  
Xara smirked, "Is that so? Well, I hope you're right, Shinigami."  
  
Just then, Duo's eyes changed to their dark, cold version. In Sarai and Xara's eyes, they saw Shinigami with his hood and cloak standing before them, fuming.   
  
"Are you women stupid? What if someone was listening, what if you told my human host who he really was? What are you two thinking? I commanded you two here to watch over Hotaru! Not to stir up problems!! You have jobs to complete, otherwise you won't be coming back, understood?" Shinigami was beside himself, he had ordered the two girls to somehow lead Hotaru onto the path of returning to him, but now, they were only making it harder. "You fools...If you don't succeed, there will be hell to pay...Is that clear?"  
  
Sarai and Xara were on their knees bowing to their master, "Hai, Shinigami-sama, wakarimasen..."  
  
"Good...now get going, and stop flirting with Duo, I can't have him suspecting anything...Especially you Sarai-chan [HEY!!...]" His voice getting sugary sweet, "I know, you want to flirt with him [but who wouldn't? he's too damn cute...](URUSEI!!!!)...so you better watch it..." His voice getting hard again. "I'll be watching, so don't do anything stupid, that Heero Yuy is already suspicious."  
  
With that, Duo turned back to normal, and before Sarai and Xara was a very confused looking 'Shinigami.' "Ugh...what happened, I seemed to have blacked out or something..."  
  
Sarai, looking concerned (acting), said, " You ought to go get some rest Duo, you don't look too good."  
  
Duo, taking her advice laid down on the couch and took a nap.  
  
"That was close Sarai, we'd better watch it, or otherwise, Shinigami-sama won't be happy."  
  
"I know Xara...This'll be harder than we thought, especially since Hotaru-sama seems to hate us. We have to earn her trust...somehow..."[huh? Why do they have to earn... OH!!! I get it hahaha...](baka...)[shut up...]  
  
Xara didn't answer. They both stood there watching Duo sleep, unaware of a pair of Prussian blue eyes watching them.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Hotaru..."  
  
Hotaru looked over to the source of the voice, she saw Heero standing in the doorway of her office. "What is it?"  
  
"It's about Xara and Sarai...they're like you aren't they?"  
  
Hotaru looked back at the papers in front of her, not really answering.  
  
"They seem to be planning to do something that involves you and...." Before he could finish Hotaru cut in, "Shinigami?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
"That's just lovely. Hmp...Well I can promise you that they won't succeed. They seem to think that I'm weak... fools...They'll never be able to defeat me."  
  
"Defeat you in what?" Heero walked towards her desk, closing the radius of earshot.  
  
"In whatever they're planning..." Hotaru's eyes didn't leave the papers, but Heero saw that they weren't moving either.   
  
[Since you're stuck... I thought I'd help out] The ex-Wing pilot looked at her, "Do you have any idea as to what the hell they're planning?"   
  
The violet eyed girl replied, "Iie..."  
  
"Do you plan to do anything about it?" the other asked. Hotaru looked up, he could see mixed emotions within her eyes. Deciding not to complicate the situation for the girl anymore than it already was, he turned and started for the door.   
  
"Heero?" he looked back. She smiled, the corners of her mouth lifting up just a bit. "Arigatou."   
  
Flustered, he responded, "For what?"  
  
"For caring I suppose..."  
  
He stared, a bit surprised by the girl's words, smirking a bit, then "Hn..." he was out the door. [Hopefully you have some idea as to how to continue now... ]  
  
^^^^^^^^^  
Thank you for writing this last part of the section!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you SFG, that was a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggggg help...I was seriously stuck so that I couldn't write anything, you even have my writing style down jot!! So now that this part is done, I can finish this chapter and work on my other stories...!!!!!!!  
  
^^^^^^^^^  
  
That night at Aoi Sora, the uneasiness between everyone was so high that even Quatre was feeling slightly edgy. Hotaru was practically hostile towards her supposed friends, and those "friends" of hers just seemed to just endure it. Duo, being the chatterbox he is, kept telling jokes in which only Sarai would laugh and Quatre would chuckle at...but the rest...Wufei, Trowa and Xara would be shaking their heads (or rolling their eyes), Heero...would still be tapping away at his laptop pointedly ignoring the braided idiot, and Hotaru...wasn't there...presently.  
  
Xara kept eyeing Heero's laptop, that finally out of annoyance, Heero asked, "What?"  
  
She, surprised, answered, "Nothing." But then after a few seconds of silence in which Heero was once again staring at his laptop, she asked, "What exactly are you doing?"  
  
"Nothing you'd understand." His eyes never leaving the screen.  
  
"I'm a priestess, I'm sure I'd understand..." Xara was offended.  
  
"Just because you're a miko, doesn't mean you'd understand what I'm doing." He replied coolly, "Anyway, it isn't any of your business." And with that, he snapped shut his laptop screen and stalked out of the room.  
  
Sarai couldn't help but to comment, "He's rather boorish isn't he?"  
  
Quatre sighed, "He's always like that, don't pay him any mind."  
  
Wufei, rather abruptly, stood up, bowed politely to the guest, and left, Trowa following shortly after him.  
  
"My they sure are a pair of dogs, following each other like that." Xara said derisively.  
  
"Bitch, quit insulting people you don't know like that..."  
  
Duo looked up in wonder. ^Since when did Hotaru swear like that? ^  
  
Hotaru had stepped into the room with a rather nasty look on her face. "Quatre, Duo, please leave us, I want to have a word with them..."  
  
They both looked at her uncertainly, but the hard look on her face convinced them to get out of there.  
  
"Ok..."  
  
"Sure..."  
  
With them gone, only the three girls remained in the dining room.  
  
"What did Shinigami send you to do?"  
  
Sarai snorted, "What do you think?"  
  
"Just answer the fucking question Sarai...What did he send you two to do? Was it to bring me back or something?"  
  
"We can't tell you...We were ordered not to tell you..."   
  
"Do I care about your orders Xara?" Hotaru glared. ^ Baka ama...^  
  
"Hmp, obviously not."  
  
"Then answer the goddamn question." Hotaru had adopted a calm cool voice.  
  
Xara rolled her eyes in defeat, there was no way they could out do Hotaru, "Fine..." but before she could say anything else Sarai interjected, "Xara...shut up! Don't tell her anything!!"  
  
Just then Sarai was thrown into the opposite wall by an invisible force. "Don't fuck with me Sarai. You don't seem to remember who you're dealing with."  
  
Sarai looked groggily up at Hotaru's darkened form, then passed out. ^Che...^ [@.@]  
  
Hotaru then looked over at Xara expectantly.  
  
Xara looked over at Sarai's prone form, then turned back to Hotaru. "We were sent to somehow get you to return to Shinigami. We were supposed to make sure nothing happens to you that would delay or impede your return to the..." Once again she was cut off, but this time by Hotaru who held her hand up to stop her from continuing.  
  
"Heero, stop spying. It's seriously lowering my high regard for you."  
  
The perfect soldier could only glare at the purple haired mystery as he stepped into the room. ^Kuso. Now she won't trust me anymore. ^ "I figured you wouldn't tell me anything, so I decided to figure out what was going on myself."  
  
"Well, what have you found? You were beating at your laptop pretty hard during dinner..."  
  
Heero looked at her, then lifted an eyebrow in Xara's direction. Hotaru snorted disdainfully, saying, "Xara unlike Sarai doesn't have a big mouth, don't worry, they were probably already warned by Shinigami to watch out for you."  
  
"Hn. They're just like you, only their files were made with even less skill. Any fool would be able to tell that they are fake. But I have to wonder who Shinigami is, and why he wants you back."  
  
Xara looked pointedly at Hotaru as if to say. ^Well, what are you going to tell him? ^  
  
The violet eyed girl answered fluently, "He's my ex. Ex-boyfriend that is. He's the leader of a major underworld (syn: Criminal world). I left 'his' world so I could be free and independent, he wants me back. I dumped him, he's pissed, he sends two old friends of mine to take me back, that's pretty much it."  
  
"Uso. If this mafia is so big, how come the Preventers haven't had wind of it?"  
  
"Dunno. My ex is ingenious. He breaks off whatever little organizations he doesn't need so that his larger corporation doesn't get exposed. It doesn't matter, you'd never be able to catch him anyways, he has many identities."  
  
Heero nodded, but then he saw Xara's face twitch. ^Hotaru's still lying, but from the way Xara reacted, she wasn't lying at all, just not telling the whole truth, or just twisting the words...^  
  
"So how long are your friends going to stay," Heero said indirectly asking the question to Xara.  
  
"For as long as it takes..."  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Uuughh...."   
  
All eyes turned towards Sarai who was coming to consciousness. "Well, Xara you'd better take Sarai to her room, I'll clean up the mess here. Heero, help me out."  
  
Xara put Sarai's arm over around her neck to support her and dragged Sarai off towards their rooms leaving Heero and Hotaru alone to fix the mess she made when she 'threw' Sarai against the wall.  
  
"I know you were lying Firefly."  
  
Hotaru cringed.  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's just that no one was allowed to call me firefly, no one except Him."  
  
"Gomen."  
  
"Iie, iie, It's ok...sorry for getting so worked up over nothing."  
  
Heero didn't answer. ^There's much I want to ask. But if I ask her, she'll just...close up...^   
  
At the same time Hotaru was thinking. ^I'll tell him...eventually. Now isn't the time to do so. When Shinigami appears again, I'll tell him, them, all of them...If only I could remember why I left in the first place...^  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Ooookk....what did you think...I especially like the pissed off Hotaru part, I don't get to write stuff like that very often...I didn't update for a long time because I got stuck in the middle and I couldn't decide whether or not I should leave it off here...but after rereading it a few times, here seems like a good spot. Anyways I hope you liked it and hopefully I'll get the next part up soon, I'm still working on the Senshi vs. Tenshi, it's taking a bit, because I'm still trying to figure out how to introduce the next few senshi and such in...so R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thankies!!!   
  
Firefly's Rebirth (FR...in case you were wonderin') 


	5. Revelation

Disclaimer: I don't own anybody used in this fic except for Xara and Sarai who are characters of my own making.  
  
AN: Sorry for the long long wait...heh...Last year was a hellish year for me. But now I'm better, I've found that writing is sort of therapeutic for me so you can expect a few more updates as I do plan on finishing these stories if it kills me. And then after I finish writing them I plan on rewriting them as I'm sure my writing style has made some development over the years....So here's the long awaited next chapter!  
  
Title: Shinigami's Lover  
  
Ch. 4: Revelation  
  
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth  
  
Rating: R  
  
Pairing: hmm...wat do you think it is?  
  
Warnings:....umm...there are hints of homosexuality...sort of ...ummm....implied torture and whatnot... oh yes...some badly translated Japanese, mind you, I don't take Japanese so what I have is what I have from watching anime...  
  
(blah) denotes my comments and notes  
  
[blah] denotes what little comments SFG can afford to put in...[thanx...I feel the love...]  
  
^blah^ denotes thoughts...  
  
*blah* denotes words spoken into whoever's head by....whoever....usually Shinigami...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Recap:  
  
^I'll tell him...eventually. Now isn't the time to do so. When Shinigami appears again, I'll tell him, them, all of them...If only I could remember why I left in the first place...^  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Hotaru walked into her room and closed the door. She sighed as she sat down on the foot of her bed. She sat staring at her reflection in the vanity mirror before her. ^Who am I trying to kid? Heero knows I'm lying about Shinigami through my teeth, Xara and Sarai are here to pressure my return to hell for god knows why. I left because...because...I can't even remember, the trip up here must have ripped some of my memories. I just want to be free, is that impossible? I just want to live the life of a semi-normal human (unable to lead a perfectly normal life because of her power and the fact that she's with Preventers which is highly abnormal), but that seems to be getting even more impossible.^ [also just cuz you know....she's one of THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE in hell...yeah...just MIGHT pose a problem...]  
  
She laid down on her bed and stared at the ceiling above. She lifted her hand above her and studied it. Her petite ivory hand against the shadows created by the lamp by her bed, making it look like it belonged to that of a ghost, so white it was compared to the shadows. ^What have my hands done to deserve this...this living hell? ...I'm tired.^  
  
*Well if you're tired, why not just return? After all, you'll be more 'at rest' if you return, you'll definitely be more at home at least, you'll be welcome, no one can hurt you...*  
  
Hotaru groaned. ^Go away! Dammit, can't I have one minute of peace from you without your constant blathering in my head? Can't I just be free from you? Why must you constantly pursue me? Why did you send Xara and Sarai? Why...?^  
  
*Stop with the questions. You can be relieved from all that if you just return. Don't forget, you do...*  
  
^SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!^ She screamed in her head. Her body shook with the agony of fear and pain. ^Urusaiurusaiusuai!!!!^ She had fallen off the bed and was huddled in a fetal position slightly rocking on the ground, with tears in her eyes.  
  
The door to her room burst open. "Hotaru?! Are you alright?" (can anyone guess who it is?) [Heeroooooo!!!!] [god...bad flashbacks of Relena...*shudder*]  
  
Duo rushed down to kneel by Hotaru, a very worried and concerned expression on her face. (nyahaha...it was DUO not Heero...heehee...did I fool ya?? ) [*pouts* meanie!!] (*cackles* *feeling very proud of herself*)  
  
Duo tried to comfort the distraught girl by stroking her back, but as he made contact with her back she lashed out with her arms hitting him away from her. "Don't touch me Shinigami! Stay away from me!!!" She screamed.  
  
"What's going on here?" growled Heero when he saw that Hotaru was edging away from Duo as if he was the big-bad-wolf. [U.U my poor Duo-chan...] (*rolls eyes*)  
  
Hotaru ignored him, her full attention on the violet-eyed boy before her, tensely in a crouched and ready to attack if provoked.  
  
Duo was nervously watching Hotaru while he answered Heero; the others (all them other boys...in case u'd forgotten...) had gathered to see what was going on, "I dunno, I just came in here because I heard Hotaru scream. I found her on the ground acting as if there were monsters surrounding her, and I tried to comfort her, but she just lashed out at me calling me Shinigami and telling me to stay away."  
  
He once again tried to approach her, his hands in front of him to show that he wasn't going to hurt her, the others watched frozen, not knowing what to make of the situation. "It's alright Hotaru, it's me, Duo, you know, the jokester of the group?"  
  
He reached out a hand to take hers. Before he was even an inch close, he was thrown back by an unseen force and knocked into Heero, who also fell under the invisible assault.  
  
"Stay away." She said tersely as the two boys tried to pick themselves up. Xara and Sarai who both seemed to be have been knocked out of their stupor by this stepped forward towards Hotaru saying, "We'll handle this."  
  
But before they could get far, Hotaru sprinted forward and went straight at Sarai's neck. "You'll handle this huh?" She sneered evilly, "Oh I'd like to see you try." [@.@.....lacking O2....]  
  
Xara stepped forward to attack Hotaru with a ball of energy in her hand, but before she could react, Hotaru, without turning her attention from Sarai, held her hand out and blasted Xara into the wall. The impact shook the wall so hard that the weapons on the wall came raining down on her.  
  
Quatre and the others watched with wide eyes, unable to believe what was happening. "Watch out!!!!!" were the words that echoed throughout the room as they watched, frozen, as the deadly sharp weapons fell upon Xara.  
  
Before their eyes, two swords imbedded themselves through Xara's back as she tried to shelter herself from the inevitable. They went all the way through her due to their heaviness and momentum.  
  
Trowa rushed forward to see whether she was okay, "Quatre get an ambulance, quick!"  
  
"No need, she wouldn't die from such things," snorted the volatile Hotaru who was still holding onto the neck of Sarai.[*choking* @.@...ok...need O2 now...] The boys just stared at her in horror. Heero stepped forward, rubbing his back, "Stop this firefly, wake up, come back to us, we're your friends..."  
  
At this Hotaru's eyes narrowed. "Friends of Shinigami are no friends of mine." And with that she threw Sarai to the opposite wall, saying, "No one messes with me and lives...get theses two out of my sight, and get him (pointing at Duo) out of this house...now."  
  
Wufei stepped over to Duo, and immediately pulled him out of the room, and then out of the house. He didn't say anything to anyone, it was a given that whatever Hotaru was asking for at the moment was to be followed otherwise they'd get hurt as well.  
  
Quatre went to help the once again unconscious Sarai who laid like a boneless heap of stuff on the ground.[gee thanx...] He lifted her arm over his shoulder and quickly, yet carefully took her out of the room.  
  
Trowa didn't know quite what to do with Xara, he didn't know whether or not he should move her with or without the two swords sticking out of her. He looked over at Hotaru questioningly.  
  
Hotaru snorted [stop snorting] her disgust and walked over to Xara who was hunched over in pain. She ruthlessly pulled both swords out of Xara, causing her to spasm momentarily before collapsing to the ground. Both Heero and Trowa watched in amazement as Xara's skin healed over the two gashing wounds on her back. The blood was still there, but it had dried. When the grotesque cycle of the knitting flesh was finished, Trowa picked her up and stalked out of the room leaving Heero with Hotaru.  
  
They stared at each other for a long while, before she spoke again, "Why are you still here? Friends of Shinigami aren't welcome in my presence."  
  
He replied calmly, "I'm no one's friend, I'm only here to make sure you don't kill anyone.[uh-huh...he's just there cuz he's cold & indifferent] After all Firefly, I told you, you'd be the cause of chaos in our world, and I don't intend on letting that happen. You told me not to look into your past, but your eyes reveal more than you know. You fear this Shinigami, yet you don't fear him. You have this split personality as well, one cruel side, and one pure naïve side. I won't say that I understand you, because I don't, but I want to. I want to know what is it that makes you go off like this, and if you're not ready to tell us, then we can wait, but at least give us the respect we deserve by telling us who you are, at least start by answering us these questions before you go off messing with our emotions." (geh...he talks too much...)  
  
He waited in silence as he let his words sink in. He could almost feel her emotions calm, as they subsided from the tide pool of hate and fear to a more melancholy and frightened feeling.  
  
"...Heero...Gomenasai...Sankyuu"  
  
He looked at her in surprise, he wasn't expecting anything. She looked so small before him, head bowed and figure trembling with unshed tears. She again surprised him when she leaned into him for support.  
  
He surrendered to his compassionate feelings and held her as she collapsed to the ground weak against the onslaught of her emotions. He held her as she cried and whispered to herself, "What am I? What did I do? Who am I? Why...?" [*gag* and you say I'M CORNY & SAPPY!?!]  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It had been a week since the incident in Hotaru's bedroom. On the exterior, nothing had changed, the 5 (excluding Duo) headed to work together (sorta) along with Xara and Sarai who tagged along, and then Duo who met them at work. It had been decided by the five guys that it was better if he had as little contact with her as possible. Both Sarai and Xara could still feel the after affects of Hotaru's attack, Sarai with her red-tinged eyes (that's what happens when you are being strangled but I decided it would look cool if her normally grey eyes were red for a bit...^^;;) and Xara still sore throughout her upper body due to the swords. Duo was feeling less cheery than usual because of his stomach's soreness, and also because he had to go out of his way to avoid Hotaru.  
  
(This first part of this chapter along with the other chapters of this fic was written two ago when I was still actively writing. And the rest of this chapter/fic would be where I've picked up after not working on any fiction writing two years....so if there're any discrepancies, forgive me, I seriously haven't thought about these stories in like...hmm...could it possibly be...two year??!!...no way! Couldn't have been...lol ^^;) [...wow...]  
  
Hotaru had surrendered no explanation yet as to what had happened with her. It was as if she hardly knew herself. She remembered her need to leave the underworld, and the desire to be free from her lover, Shinigami. She even remembered Sarai and Xara, her old rivals from a time right before she became Shinigami's lover, but she couldn't remember what she had done in the underworld. She couldn't remember who else was there with her or why she was there in the first place. So now she was stuck with the dilemma of hating and fearing Duo, who apparently was the reflection of Shinigami himself on earth and, forgiving and pitying Duo because it wasn't really his fault that he happened to be the reflection. (did that make any sense??????????) [kinda *big smile & nods*] (v.v)  
  
Heero had taken to following her around, subtly, but still outright following.[ok...this makes no sense..](sure it does...he follows her around without it seeming like he follows her around.) He watched her every move and was generally always in her vincinity. Hotaru didn't mind, in fact she seemed to welcome his "company," his quiet support and protection. His presence reduced the chance of mayhem. And lucky for her, so far, no one pressed the matter of her...explosion. They all seemed to understand that she wasn't comfortable speaking about it. (I'm rambling.....*beep*...I'll move on now)  
  
Things probably would of or at least could have gone on the same, but Shinigami had other things in mind for his firefly.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Hotaru"  
  
Hotaru looked up from her work to see Heero at the door with a cup of coffee in hand, "Yeah?"  
  
"Une wants to see you."  
  
"Oh...ok..." She finished typing the rest of her sentence out before getting up. She walked past Heero who was still leaning on the doorframe. "Um...?"  
  
"I'm supposed to be there too..."  
  
"Oh..." Flustered, she continued down the hall, Heero following her shadow.  
  
They entered Lady Une's office in silence standing in attention as she finished up her phonecall.  
  
"Heero, Hotaru." She nodded her greeting at the two quiet Preventers.  
  
Neither of them said anything.  
  
"We seem to be in a tight spot. Terrorists have all of a sudden popped up everywhere demanding that a weapon called the Firefly be released to them or else they'd destroy this world with a new uprising of war, all this in the name of Shinigami," she paused to gauge their reactions, she didn't expect what she saw.  
  
Hotaru's eyes had widened to a horrifying level. Her expression seemed to be torn between horror, disbelief, and a twisted hate. Heero on the other hand had a very concerned look...directed towards Hotaru.  
  
The diminutive girl whispered, "Wha...what's being done about it?"  
  
"Well, it hasn't been made public as it seems the terrorists have only contacted our headquarters. We don't know if it's just a prank, but judging by your reactions, it probably isn't...is it...Firefly?"  
  
Both Hotaru and Heero's heads snapped to Lady Une's calm face.  
  
"What?" bit out Heero.  
  
"English for hotaru is firefly isn't it? And since the 'terrorists' only called here, it can only mean that they want Hotaru right?" Une was looking at them evenly, ignoring Heero's glare. "I don't know what's going on with you Tomoe-san, but I expect that you take responsibility for this threat as it is a very serious situation. If this is a personal battle, I suggest you sort it out before any public damage is done. I will not tolerate this world being put in danger because of one of my employee's personal problems. I don't mean to be cruel, but when the Earth's future is at stake, I don't make any exceptions." And with that, she dismissed them.  
  
Heero didn't move, neither did Hotaru. He said tersely, "Why did you call me in as well? If this had to do with Hotaru, why did I have to be here?"  
  
"I wanted to see if any of you had any idea what Hotaru was...I just figured you'd have done the most background checking," came the curt reply from the Lady.  
  
"Hn..." He opened the door of the office and gestured for Hotaru to exit, closing the door behind him with a sharp click.  
  
They walked back to Hotaru's office in silence, this time Heero walking beside her. He was about to enter her office with her, but she turned to face him, effectively stopping him.  
  
"No...I need some time to myself. Sorry." She shut the door in his face before he could answer.  
  
Heero stared at the door, "Shinigami ka?"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sarai was seething. Not only could she still feel Hotaru's cold grip on her still, she was forced to avoid the girl so that there wouldn't be any disruption to the "peace." She really wouldn't have cared about not having any contact with the disturbed girl, but Shinigami had visited both her and Xara again that week, and he was none too happy. He had said that due to their incompetence, he was going to take matters into his own hands...not a good thing. It meant that whatever happened to them didn't matter anymore; they had fallen from his grace.  
  
She paced around the room that she and Xara now occupied while the others worked. Quatre had somehow managed to convince their superior to let them stay in the lounge while they were there. Most of the time, Xara would be reading something or another, and if not she'd just meditate or something. She was still stiff from the swords so she didn't move around very much. Sarai, on the other hand, usually slept or just played cards with herself.[gee...I sound bored...] In general though, both of them were left without much to do. Although they tried to avoid Hotaru-sama as much as possible, whenever she saw them, her eyes seemed to turn glacial. The strangest thing was what happened after; she would shake her head as if to clear her thoughts, frown and look completely confused.  
  
Xara too noticed the strangeness of the whole situation. Hotaru-sama wasn't all there.  
  
A shuffling of feet was the only noise heard in the room as Sarai paced.  
  
The door all of a sudden opened to reveal a stern looking Heero.  
  
Both girls looked at him questioningly. He looked right back, contemplating.  
  
"Why does Shinigami want Hotaru back?"  
  
Both girls were taken aback, neither of them expecting such a direct approach. Sarai was at a loss of words. Xara on the other hand winced as she turned her body to face the questioning ex-pilot. "She's his lover, of course he'd want her back."  
  
"Lover? Was she forced?"  
  
Sarai laughed, "Are you kidding? Shinigami force Hotaru to be his lover?"  
  
Heero glared, "What then?"  
  
Sarai couldn't speak as she choked back her laughter. She was definitely amused.  
  
Xara calmly replied, "To become Shinigami's lover is a hard won honor. You don't become Shinigami's lover just because Shinigami wants you. You have to fight other contenders to become his lover."  
  
"Both of you competed against Hotaru then, is that correct?"  
  
Sarai stopped laughing. "Yes, we did. Kicked our asses, she did."   
  
Both her and Xara were quiet, recalling.  
  
After a minute of silence, Xara spoke again, "It was strange, Hotaru wasn't even in line to fight, she just appeared on the day of the competition and completely blew us all away. She was exceptionally strong, but another thing that really drew Shinigami's attention to her was their similarities."  
  
"Similarities?"  
  
"Yah," Sarai added in, "Both her and Shinigami were sort of dark horses, if you know what I mean. They both were remarkably powerful."  
  
"What aren't you saying?"  
  
Xara looked at him shrewdly, "Hm...you're pretty smart aren't you Heero?" (ooh...do I hear some derision there?)  
  
He just looked back at her unblinkingly, waiting for her to continue.  
  
"In order to become Shinigami, one must defeat the previous Shinigami and the only person who can challenge Shinigami is..."  
  
"Shinigami no Koi, Shinigami's lover," came a familiarly sweetly cutting voice,   
  
Heero whipped around to see a smiling Duo. "Duo? What are you doing here?"  
  
Duo smiled [that all too 'sweet' smile ne? ^^], "Eavesdropping Heero."  
  
Heero just stared. "What made you say Shinigami's lover?"  
  
"Well it is, isn't it? I mean, from the way the conversation was going, I just figured that would be the twist needed eh?" He was still smiling. [Cheshire Cat man...evil grin]  
  
Heero snorted. He sent pointed looks at the two frozen girls before exiting the room.  
  
Duo smirked, "Well well girls...it seems I can't leave you two alone for even a minute, otherwise you'll be divulging all of our secrets eh? Especially you Xara. How should I punish you hmm?"  
  
Sarai froze, but seeing that the threat wasn't directed towards her, she relaxed ever so slightly.  
  
The room started to distort. A different dimension came into place, a place where no wondering person could walk in on their (Shinigami's) activities. Xara was bound, her wrists tied together with chains to a short post the height of her thighs. Her feet were similarly bound to the bottom of the post. The iron fetters had barbs on the inside, tearing at her wrist and ankles with every little movement she made. Whips and other devices for torture hung on the "walls" of the room. Shinigami had stripped himself of all his clothing save his pants. He was nuzzling Xara from behind, pressing his body completely against her back, soon he was panting in a sort of pleasure, seemingly unaware of the pain he was causing.  
  
Xara was caught in between pleasure and pain. The pleasure coming from behind her, Shinigami's rubbing was sending shots of pleasure to her brain, he was aroused by her body and making it known. On the other hand, it was a complete punishment being tied to posts with barbs digging into her wrists and ankles drawing blood. It was understood that before the night was over, pleasure would be of another world.  
  
Sarai watched Shinigami's movements apprehensively. Never had she seen him so sadistically enjoying himself. She almost wanted to be the one in Xara's place, receiving pleasure from him and enjoying the pain as well because it was Shinigami who was giving it. The faces both of them were making, disgusting, it made her stomach curdle in revulsion.  
  
Suddenly, Shinigami bent forward so that he was licking Xara's ear, "You're going to pleasure me tonight Xara...I want to hear you scream..."  
  
With that, he wrapped his right hand on the front of her throat and abruptly jerked her body back, away from the poles she was attached to.  
  
A strangled scream of pain rose out of her throat.  
  
Sarai turned her face away.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Hotaru shuddered. She knew Shinigami was up to something. She could feel it. Was this threat to world peace a threat that Shinigami would bring to reality? Hotaru shook her head, no, he wouldn't...he couldn't. The heavens wouldn't allow him to get away with such a thing. She wouldn't allow such a thing.  
  
After returning from her meeting with Lady Une, Hotaru had collapsed onto the couch in the office. (Rini was a part time worker I guess...either that or she quit...) She just didn't have the strength at that moment to deal with any of it...not even Heero's uncomfortably comforting calm and security. She closed her eyes and fell into a fitful sleep.  
  
*Anta wa dare?*  
  
Hotaru looked around anxiously to see who had spoken to her, "Dare da?"  
  
Giggling.  
  
*Kochikochi*  
  
Hotaru looked in the direction of the voice. It was that of a young girl's. Not seeing anyone she called out, "Doko?"  
  
More giggling.  
  
*Kochi.*  
  
Hotaru turned to her left, and sure enough there was a girl standing before her. She couldn't really see her though, the little girl was covered in shadows. "Anata wa dare?"  
  
Giggling. *Atashi wa...Hotaru desu. Anta wa dare?*  
  
Confused, Hotaru pointed to herself, "Watakushi wa Hotaru desu."  
  
*Sou ne?* Giggle *Me too...*  
  
"I can't see you, please come closer little Hotaru." Hotaru blindly reached forward towards the little girl that also called herself Hotaru. This place she was in, was dark, there were no walls no floors, just space, yet there stood a girl before her.  
  
The girl stepped forward, but as she stepped towards her, her shape seemed to change, to grow larger. Only when she was right in front of Hotaru did she stop. By then Hotaru could see very clearly who she was.  
  
Before her stood her very reflection, only she was slightly different. Her hair wasn't shoulder length, instead, it reached down past her feet, a puddle of the black mass gathered beneath her. Her eyes weren't as round, but sharper, and her smile wasn't cute or innocent, but rather a more callous smirk. (She does sort of look like Mistress Nine, but I'm imagining a more mature looking version of Hotaru.) Hotaru lifted her hand and put it up against her reflection's hand. "How...who?"  
  
The Other Hotaru smiled, "I am you Firefly. Your other half, your truer half. Or rather your spoiled side." (spoiled as in no longer pure...it also has other connotations if you really wanna analyze...=P)  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"I'm here to free you of course. You can only gain your freedom if you know who you are. Shinigami will always have a hold on you wherever you go, but if you have at least your memories, then maybe you'll have a better chance at independence from him."  
  
"You speak to me as if you are a completely different person."  
  
"In a way, I am. I will always be Shinigami's lover." This was said with a sort of pride. "No one can replace me, least of all those two inferiors who are currently stuck in one of Shinigami's sadistic games."  
  
"Xara and Sarai? What's happening to them?" Hotaru was worried.  
  
"Oh how you can be so caring is beyond me. Listen here, we're going to fuse. I've had enough of this half-existence bullshit."  
  
"What?"  
  
The Other Hotaru wrapped her arms around Hotaru pulling her close. Her voice dropped to a sensuous whisper, "I'm going to become one with you Firefly, that way you can be free and so can I."  
  
"You want freedom? From what?" Hotaru was feeling faint, she leaned into her other half.  
  
"I want freedom from Shinigami of course..." She was now whispering directly into Hotaru's ear, running her hand up and down Hotaru's back, calming her.  
  
Hotaru's heart beat in sync with the other's. ^Freedom from Shinigami. If I fuse with her, then I'll be free...^ "How....." She too was now whispering...  
  
"Like this..." She moved back slightly and drew Hotaru's face towards hers. She leaned forward as Hotaru's eyes closed. Their faces inched closer.  
  
"Firefly!!"  
  
Hotaru's eyes snapped open.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Heero walked down the hall towards Trowa's and Wufei's shared office. ^That Duo...^ He found a note on the door saying that they had gone out to do some info gathering. So he headed towards Quatre's only to find him busily talking to someone on the phone about some incident or another. There was no one he could sit in silent contemplation with. Usually he'd have done it on his own, but he was hoping that his old friends would be able to come up with some revelation for him. (rambleramble...) [grumblegrumble...]  
  
Even though they were now off vacation, he was left without anything to do. He knew that he should be doing research on the other peace problems, but he was sure the other's could handle it without him. (Ooh....sap comin' up...) [thanx 4 the warning *puts on sap filtering glasses*] And strangely, he found that he was distracted by another matter on hand. A certain strange firefly and her strange friends with their strange and dangerous problems. (ooh...very strange...)  
  
Irritated, he walked back into his own office and sat at his desk, staring at his laptop. He fiddled around with it, and saw something that was very disturbing on the screen. He ran out of the room and sprinted towards the door at the end of the hall.  
  
He forced the door open and with his own two eyes, confirmed what his laptop had shown him. A girl wearing armor with spikes, a long cape and obscenely long black hair floating about. Not only was she floating above the prone girl on the couch, not only did she just happen to look exactly like the girl on the couch, she had black angel wings sticking out of the folds of her cape, black wings which were presumably attached to her back. The apparition was leaning towards Hotaru with a smirk that didn't look quite right. Something about her about to kiss Hotaru didn't strike very well with Heero.[gee...I wonder why] (no seriously though...I DO wonder about that...) The wrongness hit Heero in the gut. (Wrong as in, it felt wrong.) He dashed forward "knocking" the angel out of his way, and shook Hotaru, who was looking far too pale, calling her, "Firefly!!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
She found herself lying on the couch staring up at the ceiling. She sat up and bumped heads with Heero, who gave her the strangest look.  
  
"What? What is it? What happened? What's wrong?" She was completely flustered.  
  
Heero's forehead was scrunched in deliberation. "You...who...?"  
  
Hotaru shook her head not understanding, "What? I what? Who what?" [now she sounds like u...clueless...] (HEY! That's not nice!!! I'm not clueless!!!) [suuuuuure ur not!!!] ( I resent that...)  
  
"There was someone, something hanging above you."  
  
"What?"  
  
"She...It...was about to kiss you."  
  
Shocked silence.  
  
^It was a dream? Wait...it was real?^  
  
"Who was she Firefly? Do you know?"  
  
"She...I..."  
  
"Ano onna wa Shi no Senshi, Shinigami no Koi, Tomoe Hotaru."  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
AN: So...after how long did I finally update this...sheesh...welll for the longest time I didn't have any idea where any of my stories were going to go. I knew how it would end, just not how I was going to get there. On top of that, last year was, as I said, hellish for me personally, so I was unable to put anything out. It wasn't until the end of last year (school year) that I figured out that a good source of stress relief and such could be found in my writing. So this year, I started writing again, it took some time, but I'm back again. And I do plan of continuing these stupid stories of mine ^^;; LoL....anyways, please motivate me more by giving me nice reviews! I could really use them, that way I know people still want to read my story. Thanks!  
  
Lufs from Firefly's Rebirth (heh...I should change to Firefly's Return!!!...lol...=P ) [*rolls eyes*]  
  
PS. Contrary to common belief...I don't actually write these stories, they write themselves and I'm a slave to their commands. So if there seriously is something I don't understand and it doesn't make sense to you....heh....ask me....gimme time...and I'll figure it out...eventually....with loads of useless arguments with my beta cause she apparently has a logic that cannot be compared to anything else. (Meaning...any explanation I can come up with why or how something happens...she shoots it down). So anyways...make sure to review!! ;D 


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